Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Font!

Move over tariff wars. The serif wars are here.

The typical unhinged Leftist fury this holiday season has nothing to do with the price of the gifts under your tree. No, the newest political controversy is over a Trump Administration rule about its choice of font. Yes, we thought it was a joke, at first, too. Upon further inspection, however, it is very real.

Here’s what happened.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent an internal memo directing that all written communications be reverted back to using the serif typeface Times New Roman, which had been the standard prior to 2023, when it was changed to Calibri by the Biden Administration. Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken oversaw that change nearly three years ago, even though it, as Rubio pointed out, clashed with the department’s official letterhead style.

The New York Times, of course, framed it as another front in the “War Against Woke” and suggested Rubio had waded into the “surprisingly fraught politics of typefaces.”

Reuters, on the other hand, took it a step further with its headline “Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri.”

Interestingly enough, The New York Times also reported on the change back in 2023, and cited experts who claimed Calibri was more readable for some with learning or cognitive differences. It even quoted the State Department’s first chief diversity officer as saying the change will make the department’s paperwork “fully inclusive.” In short, Rubio’s memo should not be a surprise since it is consistent with his push to eliminate wasteful DEI policies and practices.

Then, the absurd reporting turned bizarre.

One journalist promptly pointed out on X: “The Nazis, in 1941, banned the Fraktur font because it was ‘too Jewish.’”

That’s right. That’s a real post.

Some on the Left thought it was appropriate to whip up a Nazi analogy, with a direct antisemitic reference, as a fake context for Secretary Rubio’s memo that changed official communication fonts from Calibri back to Times New Roman, which had been the rule during the first half of the Biden Administration as well as during the Trump, Obama, and Bush Administrations.

Now, it is easy to make fun of fake outrage from the Left during the Christmas season, but unlike many on the Left in the political arena, the ACLJ continues to lead the charge against rooting out actual antisemitism. We also represented multiple families of the Israeli hostages after the October 7 attacks, and will continue to defend Israel at the U.N.

In the meantime, rest assured, the ACLJ remains neutral in the serif wars. Further, this article was written in the sans-serif typeface “Open Sans.”

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!